“Oh.” Tyr backed off a little. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“No.” Cela gulped back her tears. She sat straighter and managed to smile. “Do you really think I’m doing all right?”
“You’re doing fantastic. If you’re done for the day, we can trade off. But if you want to give it a try on the road, that’d be fine too.”
“The actual road?”
This got her out of the doldrums again, galvanized by panic if nothing else. A few minutes later, she was crawling along the road.
“Shouldn’t I be going faster?” Cela asked anxiously. “I can, but it’s just nerve-wracking.”
“You’re fine. I brought you to a low-trafficked road for a reason.” Tyr glanced out the back window. “I’ll let you know if anyone comes up behind you.”
No one did, but she was still vastly relieved when Tyr pointed out their turn coming up ahead. They pulled off into a small parking area, really little more than an enlargement in the road, with a sunny meadow beyond. Cela pulled to a stop and, after thinking for a minute, shifted into park and turned off the engine.
“Good?” she asked, turning to Tyr.
He was beaming. “Good? You’re brilliant.”
Without thinking about it, he moved to hug her. They caught themselves before it turned into an actual embrace, but his hand grazed her arm anyway.
They both recoiled from the resulting bone-deep jolt of pain. Tyr looked devastated. Cela felt that the only thingstopping her from bursting into tears was that she had cried too much already.
“So—picnic?” she said, forcing a smile.
They unpacked the trunk. Even as they laid out the cooler and picnic basket’s contents on the grass, Cela couldn’t help noticing how smoothly they worked together. They really were a good team. If only ... if only.
“You know,” Tyr said, low, “I’ve been thinking, more and more. What if I go to Griffin Island and confront this guy who did this to you—Kav, you said his name is?”
“Tyr, you can’t,” Cela said, alarmed. “He’ll kill you.They’llkill you. We can’t ever go back.”
“It’s bullshit,” Tyr snapped. “It’sbullshit, what they’ve done to you. I can’t just stand here and watching it slowly killing you.”
“It’s not, Tyr,” she protested. “It’s okay, I’m learning to live here—please don’t.”
For a moment she felt as if he was on the verge of shifting right there and flying off to Griffin Island to pick a fight with Kav that he couldn’t possibly win. It wasn’t just that Kav was bigger and stronger; she would back Tyr in a fight, even if she didn’t like the odds. But she feared very much that the other griffins wouldn’t let him get away with it.
But he relaxed a little when she held a hand above his arm, not quite touching him, but making it clear that she wanted to. With a little sigh, he put his hand over hers, also not quite in contact, and they sat like that for a minute—all but touching, and yet not.
“This is going to give us both some really weird fetishes,” Tyr said, and Cela laughed.
The food was good, bakery leftovers and sandwiches made with cold chicken from last night’s dinner. After they ate, they lay on the picnic blanket in the sun and chatted.
They talked about Griffin Island a little more, their favorite places and things to do. It turned out that they had both enjoyed dive-fishing at a particular calm spot off the coast, popular with young griffins wanting a place to stretch their wings and practice their flying.
“We must never have been there at the same time,” Tyr said. “I’d have known you if I ever saw you.”
And I you.She would know him anywhere, in the dark and blindfolded. Underwater. At the ends of the earth.
“It’s too bad we didn’t meet there,” Tyr said, low. “It would have saved us both so much pain.”
“It would,” Cela agreed. Then she looked around. “But we would never have seen this place. You wouldn’t have Austin and Lissy. I wouldn’t have the twins.” Her heart gave a tremendous pang. She was enjoying the baby-free time, but she already missed them after only a couple of hours. Even if she could change it all, she would never do anything that would cost her Aven and Ayra.
“That’s true. We’d never have left the island.” Tyr turned to look up at the sky. “That’s a strange thought.”
“Well,youwould have,” Cela pointed out. “At least for griffin walkabout, which my clan doesn’t do. I wonder if we knew we were mates, if they would have let me go with you?”
“I would have liked that. But it would have been different, you’re right.” Tyr sighed, gazing up at the blue sky, flecked with clouds. “Cela ... whydoyou suppose so many griffins on the island don’t have mates? I was always told we simply don’t, but then there’s you and I. I’ve rarely heard of griffins on walkabout finding their mates, either.”
